captioning sponsored by newshour produions, llc >ni> woodruff: good e, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the gun debate gets real-- students of the parkland florida high school descend on washington and fopitol hill as lawmakers struggle to movard on gun control. also ahead, downgraded: the president's son-in-law and senior advisor jared kushner is stripped of his top-secret security clearance. then, as hundreds of thousands of salvadorans lose protected legal status in the u.s., a look at their uncertain future and what a mass deportation could mean. >>eportation of salvadorians covered by temporary protected status will have a multi-billion dollar impact on the u.s. enomy. >> woodruff: and, our book club series continues with "killers

author david grann answers reader questions and talks about the significance of the osage inan murders. >> i don't think you can understand our country unless you understand this part of our history. this is one of the worst racial injustices and crimil conspiracies in american history and it was never taught in school. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributionso your pbs ation from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: it's been nearly two weeks since a gunman killed 17 people at a high school in parkland, florida. now, congress faces the question what to do about guns i america. the answ is anything but clear. lisa desjardins begins our coverage >> desjardins: walking the halls of congress today, sctdents turnedists from marjory stoneman douglas high, preing for more gun control. their supporters, including democratic congressman ted who represents them, sa it's past time to listen: >> they'reired of people

telling them that this is hard; what's hard for them is what they're dealing with, which e thss of 17 members of their family. things that everyone knows can be done that aren't controversial, we have to stop viewing them as controversl and take action right now. there's no log jam around. the only log jam is that the speaker won't bring them to the floor for a vote. >> dins: at his news conference, house speaker paul ryan pointed to a bill his chamber already passed to strengthen current background checks, anwas asked how he responds to protesters in florida and across the country, saying congress must do more. >> this speaks to bigger questions, what are we teaching kids, violence in our culture, of course we want to listen to ds, but we also want to make sure that we protect people's due process rights and legal constitutional rights. >> desjardins: hou majority whip steve scalise, who survived a shooting last year thanks to armed law enforcement, pointed at failures in parkland, florida. >> what about the laws on the

?oks that were not enforc what angers me the most is breakdownsw enforcement. the f.b.i. had the shooter's name on silver p. >> desjardins: on the senate akde, republicans echoed s ryan, pointing to the so-called "f nics" bill to encourage more agencies to work with the n.i.c.s. or crtional instate inal background check system. texas republican john cornyn: if our attitude is, "i want everything on my list or nothing," we're going to end up with nothing. let's do what we can immediately to pass there. and build from >> desjardins: but democratic senate leader chuck schumer says that bill doesn't go far enough. he's calli for universal background checks. >> what will prevent future tragedies? comprehensive background checks will. let's not set our sights too

s try for significant, bipartisan legislation that will make a real difference in keeping our children safe. >> desjardins: republican senator pat toomey and democrat joe manchin are working to revive their 2013 proposal to expand background checks. and republican suslins and heidi heitkamp lead a bipartisan group of nine senators, pushing to bar people on terror watch lists from buying guns. in recent days, president trump has spoken about a range of ideas. they incluengthening background checks, banning bump , raising the purchase a for some rifles to 21, and arming teachers inchools. the white house said it will have more specific policy announcemeter this week. it's still unclear if anything can pass, but senate democratic ip dick durbin said the country is at a "tipping point." >> there are proposals that americans broadly support, let's do something.

the n.r.a. doesn't support them but are they the ones who write law? >> desjardins: meanwhile, in floreveral emotional hours at the state house, as a committee voted to raise the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21, and install a three- day waiting period for gun purchases. republicans voted down democratic amendments to ban assault weapons and require mental health screening to purchase a gun. today, attorney general jeff ns says they believe the have the authority to ban those bump stocks or those items that can make a semi-automatic weapon into machine gun. judy? >> woodruff: lisa, there are so many proposals out there. we heard you tick off a number of them. we've been here before. inere has been discussion about what to do gunhe past. i heard you say it looks tough, lut what looks possible? >> the b that seems to have the most support, but that doesn't mean it will pass, is

the fix nicks bill,ut it has some issues. some republicans say it violates dew due process rights. when the house passed its version, it coupled together with this bill a conceal carry reciprocity measure th would allow conceal carry permits to cross state lines. that's something democts won't support, so the senate has to take those two items apart or put them together and you've got problems in the house. so there'sone thing that's very narrow has political problems. >> wdruff: we also know that these students who have come all the way to washington from florida and other studeous the country who supported them are asking for a lot more than that. >> that's righs >> woodruff:here any prospect for more? >> i asked speaker ryan about this specifically, and i think the two best potentials for more than this, one, the manchin-toomey background bill. the democrats seem to be doubling down on that. they ce out of their caucus

meeting. they said, we think we're going to go all in on universal background checks. that's their push. and republicans meanwhile are deciding if they can support t nchin-toomey or not. the other thing t think is a question mark is the idea of perhaps raising age limits onally. i talked to some conservatives including bill cassidy of louisia. he says he's still considering that. he's not yet a no. >> woodruff: this is something thehe n.r.a., national rifle association, opposes. >> that's right. >> woodruff: time arne, what we looking at? a lot of people say they're in a hurry to do something? >>te're just a the end of february. it look like the push is for march. it's hard the say if t actually reasonable. they have to ask whether they will hold hearings. well, thhave some of these students come and testify before congress? will the n.r.a. testify before congress? then you get into what i thinkth will b key date here, judy. march 23rd. that's the next spending deadline. democrats will have to decide not only if they are going tpuo for an immigration deal before then, but now will they

demand some action on guns before march 23rd. the other date that's inresting, judy, march 24th. >> woodruff: the day after. >> that's the day that students are saying they will come washington in what they plan for as mass protest. >> woodruff: we're expecting ao lot of people show up for that. we will see. lisa desjardins, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, the head of u.s. cyber command said thery will have to do more to deter russian interference by in future elections. admiral mike rogers also leads the national security agency. at a unate hearing today, he told rhode island democrat jack reed that he would need orders to strike directly at russian cyber-attackers. >> have you been directed to do easo given the strategic t that faces the united states and the significant consequences y recognize already? >> no i have not. >> but you need the direct authority of the president through the secretary of defense? >> to do some ecific things >> some specific things. >> there are some things i have under my authority and i am acting within that authority

now, not waiting. >> woodruff: rogers also warned that in the absence of stronge u.s. action, "president putin has clearly come to the conclusion there's little price to pay here." but white house press secretary sarah sanders said later that "nobody is denying rogers the authority" to act. there's word that north korea may be helping syria's government make chemical weapons. the "new ymes" reports a u.n. investigation found 40 suspect shipments from the north to syria. it also said north korean missile technicians were spotted at syrian chemical weapons sites. in turn, pyongyang would get cash for its nuclear and missile programs. meanwhile, the u.s. special representative on north korea, joseph young, made a surprise announcement th hs retiring after 30 years in the foreign service. he cited personal reasons. in syria, russia's call for a daily, five-hour truce collapsed

today in rebel-held suburbs east damascus. war monitors and witne reported the government kept up its air strikes and artillery assault on eastern ghouta. some 400,0ivilians are caught in the onslaught.ed >> ( transl ): they are targeting us but we are not with a faction or group, we are all civilians, why are they dropping the s on us? they terrified the children, destroyed homes. god bring an end to this. what kind of a cease fire is this, a plane has been circling night. >> woodruff: the syrians and their russian allies blamed the rebels for t continued ghting. the king his military chief of staff and other top defense officials overnight. it came in the face of a stalemated war in yemen. in turn, younger officials were elevated, including the rare y ming of a woman to a high- level post, as depbor minister. rare, public dissent has surfaced in china, against letting president xi jinping

rule indefinitely. open letters appeared overnight on social media, urging chinese lawmakers to reject the proposal. one called it a return "to an imperial regime." and in hong kong today, dozens of demonstrators held signs of xi depicted as an emperor and monarch to protest the changes. back in this country, west inia public schools stayed closed in the fourth day of a state-wide teachers strike. they say they're protesting low and rising health care costs. this afternoon, strikers were out in full force asnion leaders met with the governor at the state capitol building in charleston. the new chair of the federal reserve offered an optimistic . jerome powell he would not say if that means another interest rate hike this year, beyond the three ready projected. instead, powell told a house hearing that his "personal outlook" of the economy has improved. >> we've seen continuing

strength in the labor market. we've seen some data that will in my case add some confidence to my view that inflation is moving up tot. we've also seen continued st and we've seen fiscal policy become more stimulative. >> woodruff: that policy stimulation includes the budget deal that grincreased government spending, and the new tax overhaul. the prospect of future interest rate hikesent stocks plummeting on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average plunged 299 points to close at 25,410. the nasdaq fell 91 points, and the s&p 500 lost 35. still e on the newshour: microsoft, privacy and overseas data: a fight before the supreme court. the debate over ming school teachers. salvadorans caught in hee middle with protected immigration status revoked, and much more.

>> woodruff: the psident's son-in-law and senior adviser, jared kushner, has been stripped of his top secret security clearance. thmove follows revelations that a number of top officials at the whiteouse, including kushner, were working without permanent clearances. esto walk us through the l developments is robert costa, host of "washington weekand porter for the "washington post."ob sot, what does this mean? what clearance does jared bernstein lose? >> he has been having abscess for over a year in the white juse to classified materials. now he wilt have a secret designation. at's a downgrade from h current designation. he's been going with this interim clearance for a year, but general john kelly, the chief of staff, has moved to try to tighten up this whole process inside of the west wing.

>> amaka: donow what that means in terms of what he can still see and what he can no longer see? >> the white hoe maintains that kushner will be able to work on mexico relations with the united states, will ctinue to work on middle east peace, but this will be narrower scope his clearance inside of the white house. he will not have access to top-secret classified information in the same way that e president will in the coming months.f: >> woodro how do the folks you're talking to think that affects his job, the work j's able to do? >> it wasd bernstein. his top aide inside of the white house has announced he's goi be stepping away. he lost his top-secret clearae, the classified access inside of the white house to many of the materials he's currently had accs to up to this pilot. and as you recall, just in the last few weeks, his clearancen has nder the microscope. rod rosenstein has talked about ongoing concerns with kushner's status.

this is all swirliund his job tonight. >> woodruff: and we heard the president say when he was asked abouthis the other day tha he expected the white house chief of staff, who was supposed to bs making decision about security clearance, would do the weght thing. ssume this decision came from john kelly, the chief of staff? >> it did. it was cted in a memo throughout the white house late last week about how if you currently have an interim security clearance and it's not moving toward a full security clearance, you will see a downgrade in your status. but this is a fragile moment for the chief of staff. 's navigating not only political dynamics inside of the white house but family that n-unts jared kushner as a -law. the husband of ivanka trump also a senior advise. president trump said in statement kushner is still a valuable member of the white house, but he's certainly having a tough time to maintain that high status he's had since day one. >> woodruff: meantime, robert, your newspaper, the "washington post," reporting lateoday that there is now information coming

into the u.s. government that foreign officials who kushner, jared kushner has been dealing withomhave sindication that they think they can take advantage of him. what's that all about? >> it's a complicated story but an important story. it puts the focus back on the presidential transition and conversations that jared kushner had during that time with foreign ofs. as you recall, during the presidential transition last year, he was still dealing wh some financial projects in new york city, a fifth avenue project, park a excuse me, and you see him trying to talk to financialil at the same time he's trying the work as a transition official. it was a complicated moment for him courage that- - during that time, and all of that is coming under scrutiny, bamut it also up in kerr sags by foreign officials as they discussed the incoming administratio >> woodruff: so that sounds like a story we'll be hearing more about. all right, robert costa reporting for us in the "washington post," thank you, robert.

>> thank you. >> woodruff: today's supreme court case involving microsoft and overseas data puts a familiar tech issue before the justices: the ing act between the interests of law enforcement on oac side and printerests on the other. immigration has also been a key justices.week for the and as always, marcia coyle of nal law journal" breaks it all wn. allo, marcia. let's start with tument that the justice heard today, the dispute between microsoft and the federal government. we know it started a few years ago. the federal government had a search warrant for microsoft. what was that all about? >> okay. this warrant was not your -- rcat we often talk about, a fourth amendment swarrant. this warrant was for e-mails that the federal prosecutors

believe were important to a drug trafficking investigation, the e-mails were on a microsoft server in dublin, ireland. but the warrant came through the stored communications act of 1986. and microsoft said that act does not aputside of the united states and objected to the warrant. the lower federal appellate court agreed with microsoft. the justice department brought the appeal to the supreme court. so the arguments today we're going to focus on, whether the act applies outside of the united states, what re this act mean. >> woodruff: and remind us, why did the fedral government want these e-mails so badly? >> again, because they believe they were intragal to the government's investigation ofk drug traffing. >> woodruff: all right. so how... what kind of conversation or discussion did you see? >> right away there were several justices who wconcerned about how to apply this 1986 law

to modern technology. justice ginsburg, for example, said back in 1986, no one e heard of clouds. she wondered, wouldn't it be bettero leave things as they are. we have to give an all-or-nothing decision, but congress can take account of all the nuance, the new technology. justice breyer also said, is there any way we can read the language in the act to adapt it to modern times? but lawyers on each side said that the duty of the justice was to interpret the act. so what did they do? well, the government's attorney said the focus of this laws i disclosure, and once microsoft retrieves the e-mails, disclosure occurs in the united states. so the act is not being applied abroad. the microsoft lawyer said, no, the focus of the act is securing the security of these eleicron communications, and going into ireland to get them isnvading

a sovereign interest that has its own laws about storing communications. >> woodruff: could you tell anything about the kinds of questions, tferences in the kinds of questions the justices were asking? >> their concerns we different. i would say justice alito, for example, seemed sympathetic to the bind the government was in. he sd the government could have probable cause that a u.s. citizen committed a crime in ths unittes but couldn't get e-mails to prove it because they were stored aoad. >> woodruff: well, this is one that a lot of peoe are watching for just so many reason, because tech has become reasingly befor >> and lots of friend of the court briefs were filed by tech companies, civil rights groups, privacy group, nations. >> woodruff: so separately, the justices weighing in on immigration. they handed down a decision following something they made a decision on yesterday, which i'll ask you about in a moment, but today, mar sharks they ruled on a casehat has to do with

undocumented immigrants in this country and how long and under what circumstances they can be detained. hat's right. there were really three groups of detainees that were at issue in this case. asylum seekers, detainees who had committed imes but completed their sentence, and another group that felt they had a legitinte claim to being the united states, but their claims haven't been heard. the lower federal appel et court looked at federal immigration law and ruled that these detainees did have a right under the law to bail or bond hearings and said every six months they should be reviewed to see if they posed a danger to theun coy or to themselves or, you know, could crimit a. it didn't guarantee that they would be released, but they at tast had the right the hearing. >> woodruff: ong that was interesting today, justice breyer wo some length to read an entire dissent, which is

30-some pages. >> it was a summary of it, a listening summary. >> woodruff: a long summary of a dissent. but here i'm quoting from part of what he read. he said, "no one can claim, nor since the time of slavery has anyone to my nothing successfully claimed that persons held within the united states are totally without constitutional yrotection." es. he was upset that the majority, which ruled against the detainees in this case, seemed to say that because you come into this country illegally, you are really not in this country, and so there are no rights that apply. and his quote, as he just read, says that's just the opposite. since before slavery, you know, if you're in the uted states, the constitution applies. he read a smary of his dissent. that's an indication of how stronglylde feels. i shay, judy, that this case will go back to the lower federal appel et court, because these detainees have also raised constitutional claims.

the issue before the court was federal immigration laws, statutory interpretation. so that lower federal appel et court can decide whether one, it can rule on their claims, and then actually rule on the claims. this case may come back to the supreme court. >> woodruff: and as we pointedou this on the heels of yesterday's decision not to hear the case at this point on the daca. >> tha all the court did yesterday was say it would not leapfrog a lower federal appel et court which already had the it.ernment's appeal fo it will wait to see what that court does. >> woodruff: marcia coyle of the "national law journal," thank you. >> my pleasurejudy. >> woodruff: in the days since the school shooting inand, florida, president trump and a number of other republicans, as well athe n.r.a., have ramped up calls for arming teachers and

other educators. there's no specific proposal. but the president has suggested it could be done for teachers who voluntarily want to do so, and could be offered a small bonus. it's an ideaating a lot of blowback in the field of education. but there are some districts and states that have tried variations on this. a school in pike county kentucky gave pre alouing teachers to carry concealed guns. john yang takes a closer look at all of this for our weekly education segment "making the grade." >> yang: we get two views on the question of whether teachers should have weapons in the classroom. rst, texas state representative jason villabl, a dallas republican. he's the architect of the school marshal program which allows texas school districts to train and arm teachers. mr. villabla, thanks for joining as i understand it, this program allows districts, locals distri make the decision of whether or not to do this. is that right?

ct that is cor these are volunteers at the school. the district at the trustee level will determine whetour or not theyd dont the school marshal program. >> yang: is there any role for the parents to play in this, to oecide if they want this happen? >> clearly the parents are going to play an active role. e, they elect the trustees who make this decision. two, they can participate in any kind of meetingwould be used to determine whether or not the schools would adopt this program. >> yang: and the achers are selective. it's one i think for every 400 students. is that right? >> yes. the idea is the average-sized school campus in texas is right around 400. we want to make sure there are the necessary personnel to protect those causes. so it would be about one per 400. if the school had 8, you could have two marshals on that campus. t >> yanse marshals can be teachers, any school personnel, is that right? >> yes if anyone is on the premises of the campus

so it could be a vice principal, a teacher, even a janitor or a coach. the idea is these volunteers would me forward. they would ask for extensive training. these are not justndiduals who go to school for three hours and come back d say, i want to be a school marshal. they will be identical training that our police of go through in texas. 80 hours to be able to confront and neutralize active shooters. they go through extensive background checks. th get mental health screenings. and they have regular recurring training to make sure that they're proficient in every skill leat they need to be to act in this role. rulesdruff:>> yang: what are te about securing the weapons during the school day and when they can act? when they can usehe weapons? >> if the marshal is within thev immediatinity of children, say it's a teacher, then any firearm must be under lock and key within the immediate reach of the officer. we don't want someone to have to go three campuses down or into a basement to be able to reach the rearm. it has to be within the

immediate access so we can cut that confrontation down to seconds rather than minutes. if the individual is tot in vicinity of children, let's say it's a coach i office hours where there are no children around, then and only then can the officer carry the weapon on his or her person. >> yang: i know this program ec supposed to bet. you don't want shooters targeting schools with these marshals, ut do you have a sense of how many districts in texas participate in this? >> we have talked to the organization that administers the program. we know that about 50 inviduals have gone through training. we know that the certification number is probably less than that. they try to keep it confidential. the last number we heard was in the 20 range for the indene school districts that have adopted this plan. it has not been more widely adopted only because when we passed the bill there was no fundg for the training and right now because it's not

widely known abo... the program isn't widely known. so we don't have a lot of i.s.d.s adopting it. mostly it's been rural areas that don't have police office cs pus or even within the fa fa- vicinity. >> woodruff: national teachers isoups have been responding to thisssion by saying they want to focus on educating children, that the securi bty ought left up to professionals. how do you respond to that? >> i would say we need to distinguish what we're trying to do here from arming the teachers. i hear this program often called "arming the teachers." that's not what this is. what we're trying to do is traii duals to become police officers. the law in texas creed aew class of police officer that would be the school marshal t act in this one instance. look new york one wants to introde more firearms into the school place. certainly i don't as parent of oochildren in the public ss. but in that instangs, where somebody is seeking to do harm to our children, i as a parent

want last line of defense to give my children a chance >> yang: representative jason villabla of dallas, thanks so much for jning us. >> my honor. thank you so much. >> yang: now, what do teache think about this? for that we're joined by becky pringle, a middle school science teacher who is vice president of the national education association. the n.e.en repre about three million public schoolteachers, administrators, and other personnel. thanks for joining us. you just heard him say that this is not arming teachers but turning teach, and other personnel into peace officers, last line of defense. >> that's not what it sound like. it sounds like arming teachers. and our teachers across e country, as well as other educators as he talked about in his segment, even other educators on the campus. for them to be armed only putsun morein our schools, and we .now that is not the way to keep our students sa >> yang: governor scott ofan

floridunced a big plan. he wants to put armed guards in every school. what do you think of that? >> well, i think it is for each school district and community to come together and taut this new reality. for unfortunately too many of oustudents, it's the onl reality they know. but here's the thing: adults inm the syill always get together and talk about solutions, and they usually leave t the voice of our students. they're not being silent this time. th here in washington, d.c., today and they're coming back again, and they'gre speak up and they're telling us, keep a safe. they're not talkiut arming their teachers. they're not talking about arming the custodian. they're talkingu at common sense gun law reform which, by the way, the majority of americans agree with. ou know we need universal back checks. we know we should not have assault weapons that areyasil accessible to dangerous people.

the students know that, and so do we, and we stand with them in demanding that our politicians finally do something about i >> yang: in the texas situation, it's the local schooi di that would decide whether or not to participate. do you have any objection if a local school were to say, we want to do this. >> my question would be, who are they involving in that decision? nge they involving the students? are they involhe parents? are they involving the teachers and other educatessors in that school district so te coming up with a common sense solution that will actually keep the students safe? that would be the question i would ask them, but we know from evidence that introducing more guns into a situation only makes it more dangerous or more volatile. >> yang: what would be the solutions you wo wd favor? want our politicians to finally stand up and do what's right for our studnt there is absolutely no excuse for assault weapons to be easily accessible to dangerous people.

we're only asking for commn sense gun reform. that's what we're asking for. re know that these guns designed to kill as many people as football in the shortest amountf time. there is no place for those guns in our schools or in our community. >> the parkland incident, i hav to ask. the number of teachers who died and were wounded shielding their students in this attack. how has this job of a teacher changed since disarict of colums ago. >> when the president initially talked about arming teachers, i tried the imagine, i'm an eighth grade science teacher, theea wonder. and my job was to eastbound still in them the wonders ofiv science and to them that opportunity to explore it with me. ocannot imagine adding to the lif things that i do that already go outside of the scope of my job carrying a loaded his. to

i cannot imagine taking on that responsibility. and at's why we're saying, no. politicians need to take their responsibility in enacting common sense gun reform. that's what needs to happen. r students are demanding it. and so are our educators. >> yanbe y pringle, vice president of the national education association, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, john. >> woodruff: over th three months, president trump has announced he was ending temporary protected status for hundreds of thousa fs of immigranm latin america and haiti. the largest of those groups is from el salvador. special correspondent fred de sam lazaro reports on what such a mass deportation would mean for that country and for the families that are caught in the middle, having grown up in the united states.

>> reporter: every weekday morning, the velasco children open their books at the dining table. their mother vanessa leading the class. aside from two years in a nearby school to pick up english skills, the velascos, devout evangelical christians, have homeschooled their children. later in the day they will be carpooling to gymnastics and soccer. so you're living the american dream here in brentwood, california? >> yes, this is the american dream. >> reporter: it's a dream that ney soon end. a and enrique came to this country from el salvador 20 s ago on tourist visas, after an earthquake devastated their homeland in 2001. they were able to stay in the u.s. under a program called t.p.s. or temporary protected status. starting in 1990, it has allowed visitors from several countries to stay on if natural disasters or armed conflict would s ke it danger return.

some 200,000 salvadorians were routinely granted extensions, 18 months at a time, until the trump january decision to end their t.p.s. status. james carafano, a trump transitiondvisor now with the heritage foundation, supports the president's approach. >> it was not meant to be different form of permanent migration. it was meant to be a humanitarian gesture for people to the u.s. because they were in peril. and then when the condition in their country was acceptable, the notion is that they would go ck home. >> reporter: for the velascos, going back will mean leaving behind the oldest of their three children, who are u.s. citizens. 17-year-old ariana, a straight-a student applied to u.c. berkeley and fears she'll rarely be ablep to see hents when she attends college. >> the first thought that comes to mind is being separated. they would have to go back to el salvador. i would have to stay here.

so it's going to be a very difficult time. >> reporter: 12-year-old dayana worrout leaving the only home she's ever known, as she and four-year-old brother andres would have to accompany their parents. >> we don't know how it's going to be over there and theit cons in el salvador. it's kind of dangerous to be there. >> reporter: indeed, enrique velasco, who has made a od living working construction jobs in california, says he worries about returning to an increasingly violent country. >> my fear is that in a lot of cases, you'd take all your savings, all your money and people come and steal everything from you. it's not safe.o >> reporter: tdiscover what might await the velascos, we nemade the 3,300 mile jourfrom san francisco to el salvador's capital, san salvador. heavily armed police and soldiers seem everywhere, in response to an epidemic of gang violence in the past two

decades, which has emptied entire neighborhoods whose families have fled in terror. oscar chacon works with a group lobbying on behalf of t.p.s.gr ts. >> last year, el salvador becamh agaimost violent country as measured by homicide rates in latin america. gang violence, insecurity is nor related to thequake that allowed t.p.s. to be granted in 2001. but if you do a more dynamic interpretation of conditions in el salvador, you inevitably come to the conclusion that el salvador is noa safe country. >> reporter: returnees would fall victim to gang violence and extortion, he says, and eir expulsion from the u.s. will hurt el salvador's already struggling economy >> the deportation of d lvadorians covered by temporary protecatus will have a multi-billion dollar impact on the u.s. economy. most people have jobs: the average income in excess of

$50,000 a year. but the impact on the salvadoran economy will be orders of magnitude greater. one-fifth of this country's economy is fueled by money sent home from families in the united states. >> reporter: one example, back in california, is 45-year-old yanira arias who we met at the velasco home. she came to the u.s. 18 years ago, working first as a journalist, then as a communit organizer. arias sends one-quarter of her monthly salary, about $700, to el salvador to help support her elderly parents and extended family. s yoary supports how many people in el salvador today? >> it people.odght now seven that includes education, the bills, if there are additional needs suc healthcare. >> reporter: video calls are as close to seeing her family, who want

her to remain in the u.s. when we met themthn el salvador, asked us to conceal their identities for fear of extortion by gangs. >> ( translated t yes, it's trt i miss her a lot. but she's responsible for our survival. >> ( translated ): there are thousands of people struggling to find a job here. it will be impossible for people coming from the u.s. to find jobs. >> i'm still not used to being here. >> reporter: hugo castro knows ine tough job market here l salvador first hand. he lived in the united states for 30 years, first on a student visa and then worked in restaurants as a greenard holder. in 2015, at age 50, wadeported for a minor drug charge, after serving a 30-day prison senten. >> i had to start all over again usd it hasn't been easy be el salvador isn't an easy country. especially for people my age. you come here and work does not exist. >> reporter: castro now worksno

for twn-profit organizationsp that hsettle deportees, giving counseling and limited medical and legal aid. but his advice to salvadorians still in the u.s.: don't come back. >> we are telling people to try to fix their immigration status. go to pro-immigration organizations like catholic ies. >> reporter: it will not be an easy path. the trump admistration's decision to end temporary protected status has strong support from conrvatives in congress. the heritage foundation's carafano says he's sympathetic to families like the velasco but... >> if the u.s. is going to maintain pnigrams for hurian purposes and maintain the suprt of the american people then those humanitarian programs have to be used as they're intended. so at some point, administrations need to make tough choices. maybe they're not sending people back to the land of milk and honey, but we ought to comply with the intent and purpose of the law and send those people

home. the word temporary was there for a reason. >> after 20-25 years, that is not temporary anymore. we made roots here, we have family-- raised families. >> reporter: the velasco family hopes to find a way they can legally remain in this country that they call home. one option they say they don'twa to think about is to stay on illegally by going underground once their temporare protstatus expires, in septthber 2019. fopbs newshour, i'm fred de sam lazaro in brentwood, california. >> woodruff: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under omld stories project at the university of st in nnesota >> woodruff: the warinetween ukand russian-backed

separatists is entering its fifth year. since it began, more than 3000 civilians have been killed, and llion have been displaced. to see how the conflict is affecting children living along the frontline, special correspondent and videographer sestian meyer went on assignment for unicef to eastern ukraine, and brought the newshour this story. >> reporter: every morning sisters, diana and dasha, get ready for school. their day begins like so many other children: braiding hair, getting dressed, and walki to the school bus. but that's where the vemilaritiesnd. diana and dasha ear the frontlines on the outskirts of donetsk in eastern ukraine. eir school has been hit so many times with shrapnel that now all the classroom windows d high with sandbags. i counted at least 14 holes in the windows.

dasha, the older sister, remembers the school being hit while in chemistry class. >> ( translated we ran out just in time because as soon as we ran out a piece of shrapnel hit our window. of course, it was scary. i didn't go to school after tha. for two da i was scared that something like that would happen again. but then i started going again. >> reporter: now a ukrnian soldier is stationed at the school. this conflict began after the ukrainian president, viktor yanukovych, fled to russia in 2014 after violent protests in the capital, kiev. within months, moscow had invaded anannexed crimea, and thrown its support behind pro- russia separatists here in the donbas region of eastern ukraine. russia backed the separatist movement; it quickly turned violent and descended into all out conflict with the ukrainian military.

the two sides have been locked in combat ever since. today, an ad hoc border now runs hundreds of miles through eastern ukraine. to cross back and forth, civilians have to pass through military checkpoints. their bags are checked and passports inspected. i was allowed to cross over into the non-government controlled area, but was not allowed to film. despite attempted ceasefires,t this conflicis about to enter its fourth year. according to the u.n., over ll10,000 people have been , including 138 children. these children of school number two in krasnahorovka are targets. last year their school was hit in a direct strike on may 29th. >> ( translated ): the shelling doesn't leave a child's psyche unscathed. children are traumatized. they are terrified. there are children who become

very emotional. they ptheir feelings out. reon the other side, there children who keep this pain inside.se it is very sade children, who should be having a happy childhood, suffer because of w th. >> reporter: last year 42 children were woundeand six re killed because of this conflict. sasha was waiting outside a friend's house when he was shole by a stray b >> ( translated ): the bullet hit my leg. i ran a little. then my friend came out. i called to him. he put me on my bike and brought me home.r: >> reporhe bullet hit him in the ankle, shattering hisdr m of one day becoming a soccer star. the shelling is so intense where sasha lives that his school isre only open half-days a week. children are so accustomed to artillery they now no longer react to the sounds of shelling. it's not just the live rounds

that are a danger to children. mines and other explosives are a serious threat. experts y that eastern ukraine is now one of the most mine- contaminated pces on earth putting 220,000 childrt risk. 14-year-old alyosha lives in a village where ukrainian troops are stationed.ed >> ( transl ): we were on our way to the pond when the soldiers drove by. it was summer and we were headed there to go swimming. a group of soldiers passed us and something fell on the ground.at i didn't know t was, so i picked it up. i must have pressed something because it just exploded. >> reporter: alyosha lost hree fingers right hand which has made life very difficult for him. >> ( translated ): there are mosome things i can't do are without my fingers. li can't chop wood very w anymore. to be honest, there are a lot of things i can't do anymore. sometimes i get upset. not all the time, but sometimes

it makes me cry. >> reporter: even returning home does not make diana and dasha safe. the family's house has been hit as well.>> translated ): we were at home and the shelling was very heavy. a large shell flew over creating a shockwave.en all the lightsout and we all fell on the floor. then we crawled to the basement. we stayed there so long it was like we lived there. >> reporter: as the conflict entersts fourth year, it shows no signs of coming to an end, which leav all these children as vulnerable as ever. for the pbs newshour, i'm sebastian meyer in eastern ukraine. >> woodruff: finally tonight, our monthly "now-read-this" interview. that's our new book club, a partnership with the "new york

hames," that so many of yo joined. jeffrey brown talks with this month's author. >> brown: in the 19th century, the osage indians were driven from their lands several times.20 by the earl century, they lived in part of oklahoma that no one else wanted, but there was oil under the ground there, and the osage became verl y. and then in the 19 20s came a o serimurders and suspicious deaths. our now read thipick for february is "killers of the flower moon" is a work of astory. it crly captivated many of you who read along us with. author david graham is here now answer some of the questions you've sent inch hello, david. thank you for being our february pick. >> it's been an honor. >> brown: we gotots of questions. one, a lot of people wondered how you came to this story. so don c. from san francisco, what inspired do you collect this story and turn it into a book. lisa from asheville, with so

many of us never having heard of th, how did you come to i. >> i too had never heard of it. at one point a historian had mentioned it to me, and i made a trip out to the osage nation in oklahoma. i visited the museum there. at that point i had no plans of writing a book or a story or anything. i was at the ummu there was this great photograph on the wall taken in 1924. it showed members of the osage nation with white feathers. it looked very innocent. i noticed a portion of the photograph was mising. i asked the museum director, what happened to it. she said it contained a figureht so friing that she decided to remove it. and she then pointed to the missing panel and she said, the devil was standing rght there. the book grew out of trying tota unde who that figure was. she went down into the basement and brought up an image of the missing panel. it contained an image of one of the killers of the osage who had murdered many of them for the oil money. i kept thinking, the osage hadmo

d that picture not to forget what happened, but because theyan't forget. and yet so many people, including me, had no knowledg of this event. so that was the real impetus to rance.n my own igno >> brown: a lot of our readers had questions about the research about how you did it, where you did it, how long it took? >> it took me close to five years to research and write. it tk a long time for two reasons. basically there were two avenues of research. one avenue was archival, and one avenue was tryi to trac down the descendants of both the , murderers and the victiny of whom still live in the same neighborhoods in oklahoma side by side, their fates intertwine, which is in many ways the story of america, and it was meeting with many of them that gave me a real sense of how this history still reverberates to this day. ro brown: you evente, page 264, i marked it, i often felt i

was chasing history even as it was slipping away. several ofur readerted that, as well. e> yes, it was often lik chasing ghosts. i went to theiv arche in fort worth, texas. at one point, i pulled a box that contained guardian recordsa and because e had money back then because of oil, the u.s. government had given theman guarwhite guardians to manage wealth. this was a deeply racist system. when i was looking through this booklled a becomes on the guardian and found this old logbook, and it was looking through it. i would see the name of one guardian, and would often see five osage whose wealth they had managed. if the osage had died, somebody oote the word dead next their name. in one case there was an osage, and it had theord dead. next osage, dead, dead, dead, dead, all five. then i looked at anot guardian. they had about 12 osage whose

fortunes they hadse over, 50% of them were dead. this defied any national death rate, and it was documents like that going back to your hequestion, that gave you sense of the breadth of this conspiracy. it opened thishole word up and demolished my original notion of the book, which was really awtory about ho did it. it became a story about who didn't do it. >> brown: we have number of questions about the impacted of the book. clearly people wondering what i did u but also what it did to the people involved. so brandon irwin from glendale, arizona, what do you see as the principle benefit of bringing to light history that has been forgotten? >> i don't think you ca understand our country unless you understand this part of our hist y. this is on the worst racial erjustices and criminal conspiracies in ican history, and it was never taught wa school, it was never taught to me, i not taught in most oklahoma schools, the osage were

intimately aware in history, others weren't. i don't think you can understand uthis country uns will have events like this. i think stories like this were marginalized and neglected, and they belong with partf our history. >> brown: you brought it back the life. >> i hope so. >> brown: we'll continue this conversation on our website and on our now read ths facbook page. thank you, david grann. >> thank you. >> brown: now i get to announce our next book club pick, "exit west." it's a deeply written and imaginative take on contemporary issues of migration and displacement. if you're already part of "now read this," you know how it work if you're not, now is time to go to our facebook page and join nearly 50,000 other readers. now read this is a partnership with "the new york times," and we are very glad to have youad g along with us.

>> woodruff: very exciting that book club, and an update, v weginia's governor said a state-wide teachers' strike will .nd on thursday. schools will reop the educate years have been protesting for four day, demanding better paynd benefits. the teacher and school service personnel will now receive a 5% pay hike next year. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newsur has been provided by: >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic cegagement, and the advancement

of international pnd security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. og >> this m was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org elyse: we're the history detectives, and we're going to investigate

some untold stories from america's past. this week,en in an encore tation of history detectives, was this device snatched from the burning wreckage rg of the hindenbu mathover radio: oh, humanity! gwendolyn: do these tattered pages b open thek on a president who built a nation even as his own son fell into ruin? tukufu: and did this bronx apartment building give birth to a culture that now spanshe globe? when kool herc give a party, everybody be there. : elvis costello ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ i get so argry when the teops start ♪ ♪ but he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart ♪ ♪ watchin' the dectives